The scholarship review letter arrived on a Wednesday.
Not dramatically — it didn't slide under my door at midnight or appear on my phone at the worst possible moment. It just showed up in my email at 9:47am while I was eating breakfast and Denise was complaining about the dining hall's watery tea.
I read it once.
Then I put my phone face down on the table and finished my breakfast.
Denise watched me do this with the expression of someone who had learned to read my silences like a second language. "Good or bad?" she said carefully.
"Review is in two weeks," I said. "They want a meeting."
"That's standard though right?"
"Yes." I picked up my cup. "It's standard."
She watched me for a second longer than necessary.
I kept my face perfectly neutral and hated that it cost me something t
